ImportOmatic Training with a Side of Popcorn!

Imagine that you take a few piano lessons, and you think you’ve mastered the skills to play, so you go plunk down thousands of dollars and buy a piano. Then, you throw a party to show off for your friends, but the looks on their faces say maybe you could use more lessons. You’ll most likely continue with paid piano lessons for a while, as you’re pretty committed at this point having already bought the piano. Or, you might even choose to look for videos online to supplement your learning process.

While ImportOmatic (IOM) is definitely not a piano, it is a major investment for your Nonprofit organization and it takes training to be able to use it well. In order to maximize the return on your software investment, you will want to leverage it to its full potential. Your IOM purchase includes several hours of training with one of our consultants, along with a detailed (300 page!) user guide and excellent product support.

With that being said, sometimes there can still be a gap between your training sessions and when you start using IOM regularly – other projects get pushed to the front of the line, you go on vacation, the primary function you are going to use it for doesn’t happen for a couple of months – and you may feel a little hazy about the details when it’s go time. Or, perhaps the person who completed IOM training has left the organization, and you are the person who has been tasked with using it…right now…but you’ve never seen it before and you don’t know where to begin! Then, there is also the simple truth that the training sessions bring a large volume of information, and you might not retain every neat thing you were shown (we won’t tell anyone, pinky promise). In any of these cases, you can reach out to our friendly support team for assistance and they’ll be more than happy to assist you with specific items. But, for those in depth step-by-step instructions, the IOM eLearning Library can be the best how-to guide!

ImportOmatic eLearning Library (eLL)

The IOM eLearning Library (eLL) is a series of training videos that are available on a subscription basis. It’s great for users who are interested in continuing education, and those who want to stay up-to-date on the new features and capabilities of IOM. It is excellent for new user training or a refresher if you haven’t used IOM in a while. The videos are between 5-20 minutes in length and are categorized into four areas:

New ImportOmatic User Training:

Here you will find a general overview of IOM, along with videos about mapping fields, editing profiles, and import preparation. This is also where we post new features reviews for major releases.

Importing 101:

The basics – importing addresses, actions, relationships, phones, and emails, etc.

Configuration Courses:

This is where you learn about dictionaries, duplicate searching, error files, output files, package and appeal processing, and more.

Advanced Importing:

These videos will help you learn the more complicated import processes of things like memberships, events, tributes, relationships, split gifts, and pledge or recurring gift schedules. These can be especially helpful if your organization has just purchased one of these add-on modules for RE or if you would like to import this data.

From the list above, you can see videos are available for very nearly any part of IOM that you need to use. Not only can these videos can be watched as many times as you’d like, but they are also available at your convenience (they are available 24/7 on our website). The subscription is also valid for everyone in your organization. Best of all, the format of the videos allows for users of various experience levels to follow along and learn at a pace that is comfortable for them.

If you are an IOM user, and you don’t have an annual subscription to our eLearning Library, please shoot us an email today for more information. Someone please pass the popcorn…

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